


Another lovely place

by hazk



Series: Surviving Students: Fifteen [4]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Gen, No Plot/Plotless, Post-Canon, References to Illness, Writing Exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:38:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazk/pseuds/hazk
Summary: The world isn’t limited to Jabberwock Island.





	Another lovely place

**Author's Note:**

> Written in a few hours; something a bit different but still in the same verse as the rest? This is heavily based on my own fears, nothing more to it.

“Have you ever been to Europe?”

“No.”

“Even during all that despair, you never went?”

“Why would I have?” Hinata asked, not minding in the least about the casual mention of what always will be a part of them. “There was enough to… _see_ , here.”

“Then… Kamukura stayed the entire time?”

“Did you expect me to have caught a flight over? Not really my thing.”

Komaeda shrugged and his hands were held together on the back of his neck as he walked along the beach with Hinata in tow.

“That’s a bit sad.”

“Sad?” Hinata lifted a brow questioningly, although Komaeda couldn’t see the gesture. “What is so sad about it? Even before, not everyone had the chance to travel.”

“True”, Komaeda hummed and glanced behind himself to catch a glimpse of Hinata’s confused expression. “I just keep wondering… None of those places look like they used to, even with the rebuilding. Right? A lot has been destroyed, soaked in blood all over again. It can’t be a _pretty_ sight…”

“So…” Hinata frowned. “You think I might have missed my chance to go?”

“Well, something like that”, Komaeda quickly replied and squinted at him. “Mostly I was just thinking if you could confirm it for me.”

“Confirm what, exactly? That there is no reason to consider going, even if given the possibility some day?” Hinata asked with a small smile on his face. It wasn’t intended to be a sad smile, but he couldn’t help the few annoying thoughts it made cross his mind.

He wondered if Hinata Hajime, the one who had died a long time ago now, had ever dreamed of visiting other continents. Not that that was exactly right either.

Even if Hinata Hajime had once travelled across the globe, it’s not like him, _Kamukura_ , could remember it now.

Not paying Hinata’s faltering expression any mind, Komaeda nodded and turned to look back at the beach as they continued their slow walk. He hummed under his breath and seemed to think about Hinata’s question for a while before quietly repeating:

“Something like that.”

 

* * *

 

“What is the farthest location from here you have ever been to?”

Hinata paused and looked up from the book he had been trying, and failing, to read. It was a boring piece of literature, but also the only thing he had taken with him for their short walk over.

The Island days were peaceful enough, for now, and breaks like these truly were the one thing the two of them tried to stick to whenever the circumstances still allowed for it.

“From here… That would be Towa Island, I think…”

“Ah, right…” Komaeda chuckled and waved his hand dismissively at hearing the name. “What about from there?”

“…Then it would be here?”

“Huh.” Komaeda’s gaze grew blank for a second, uncomfortable yet hiding it well. He clicked his tongue in thought. “You really haven’t travelled much?”

“That is… No, I suppose I haven’t.” Hinata closed the book and leaned back in his seat, only to study Komaeda’s expression as the other avoided his eyes. “You asked about this two days ago, also… Komaeda… Do you…?”

“Yes?” Komaeda prompted, almost as if hoping Hinata would give him some other words to go by than the ones he had in mind. Hinata wasn’t sure if it was going to work out the way the other wanted for it to, although the challenge of understanding Komaeda’s thought process had always been something that made it easier for them to move on from the past and become a part of each other’s routines.

“Do you want to leave? From Jabberwock, I mean”, Hinata asked after a brief pause to assess the situation. Komaeda huffed and finally turned to face him.

“Why would I? Where would I go?”

“I really don’t know…” Hinata said, in honesty, and offered him a smile. “You wouldn’t be the only one thinking that way, though.”

“And that’s the problem!” Komaeda exclaimed and sat down next to him. He then began to study Hinata’s confused yet curious expression in close proximity. “I wouldn’t be!”

Komaeda smiled at him and Hinata simply waited for him to explain himself, not quite sure where this was going. Sometime earlier, soon after Komaeda had first woken up after the simulation, Hinata had found the idea of this exact type of “unpredictability” in his life a bigger relief than it now was.

“Naturally, I have no intention of going anywhere! I know this is where I belong and even Jabberwock isn’t the worst place to be, considering what I believe myself to be _deserving of_ –“, Hinata frowned at that but didn’t have a chance to say anything before Komaeda continued, “– but while that is all very true, _you_ are different!”

At hearing the implication in his words, Hinata glanced away in disdain.

“Me? You always manage to make it sound like I don’t deserve exactly the same as you do”, Hinata scoffed but Komaeda shook his head.

“Well, no, that’s not what I meant… How do I put it…?”

Komaeda had a finger on his chin and he tilted his head.

“I always expected you to be the first to have enough of this place, I suppose.”

Hinata’s eyes widened and he blinked dumbly at Komaeda’s statement. The white haired man did nothing but nod his head in confirmation at seeing the look he was getting.

“Y-you… And what does _that_ mean? You expected me to… run?”

“Not quite! But Kamukura does bore easily, don’t you?”

“Well… I do”, Hinata agreed easily enough. “But there is… more to ‘boredom’ than just letting it control you? I mean, is it that hard to imagine that I actually enjoy being here, with all of you? Again, for what it is worth… I do get that this isn’t meant to be _perfect_ or anything…”

Hinata’s ramblings were cut short by Komaeda letting out a sound in realisation and quickly clapping his hands together, once. “I didn’t meant that either, Hinata!”

“Okay. Then what?”

Hinata knew more than well how hard it was for the other to find the right words even on his good days.

“Seeing the world as what it has become… I do understand that we are still presented as Despair and everyone should know as much, but! The hope, growing outside of this island! Isn’t that what you wanted to see? I really thought you'd be in more of a rush to go take a better look at the hope _Enoshima Junko_ ”, Komaeda spat out the name in the middle of his otherwise softly spoken spiel, “couldn’t predict!”

“Well, yes… But some of it I have already witnessed without the need to go too far.”

Still, Komaeda was right; with Naegi's assistance, Hinata had plans to go see for himself that not all damage outside of Jabberwock was entirely permanent either - even if seeing that much would also carry its own level of hurt. The Tragedy had been real and its impact ever lasting. It would never be simply over for anyone involved.

Hinata chuckled at the thought and rubbed the back of his neck.

“I simply am not in a hurry for the rest, I guess?”

And that was the wrong thing to say, Hinata immediately realised in an odd moment of his words having tangled to a stop and gaining a reaction of wide, almost grey eyes that quickly turned the other way.

Komaeda leaned back in his seat and shrugged almost nonchalantly. “I see! That’s good!”

Hinata – _Kamukura_ – bit his lip and thought back to the start of this conversation from two days ago, scanning through it like it was a transcript.

_”Mostly I was just thinking if you could confirm it for me."_

He really was an idiot, in his literal acceptance of what was and completely ignoring what it _meant_.

Hinata had a habit of being too busy spending his  _time_ listening to his own, split thought processes to accept he wasn’t the only one dealing with mixed emotions now that all of their expectations for their future were changing. Talking had never been his strong suit, and apparently understanding facts on a more human level wasn’t either.

Not that either Hinata or Kamukura were surprised about that one.

“It will be terrifying to see it all”, Hinata admitted after the too long of a pause he had taken to think, his words halting as he finally forced his mouth open. “But… There has to be a sense of relief there, too – in seeing that not everything is as dead as I still imagine it to be.”

Komaeda laughed but the sound of it lacked any actual cheer. He stood up quickly to stretch his legs, not looking at Hinata as he did. “That’s not a very nice idea.”

“What to do you mean? It's all you ever talk about, really. But I find it quite… simplistic. Could be beautiful in its practicality, considering how everything is beginning to grow anew.”

Komaeda stilled when he caught on to what Hinata was trying to do. Hinata could see him blink a few times before he briefly glanced at him and began to walk away, not even attempting to bother with denying what he was hearing.

There was no point to it, obviously, but the avoidance of one of his still-favourite topics said a lot about just how determined Komaeda was to get out of this conversation.

“That’s… good", Komaeda quietly said as he walked off. "All that hope a guiding light."

Hinata also got up to his feet and followed, keeping a close eye on the way Komaeda carried himself in his relative hurry to get done with the short distance back to their cottages. 

“You have been there, then? Somewhere in Europe?”

“Ah, yes… When I was very young”, Komaeda politely replied and hid everything behind the steady delivery of those words. “My parents wanted me to see as much as possible.”

“I don’t know if mine ever took me”, Hinata admitted then, out of the blue, and Komaeda’s feet came to a sudden stop. "I don’t know if I ever even wanted to go."

“Right, you wouldn’t…"

“What I do know is that I really have no preference either way now, not beyond seeing the results of everything that has happened – and even that is a responsibility and barely anything more. Honestly, there isn’t much I _want_  anymore", Hinata continued and walked up to him. Komaeda looked at him with an unreadable expression. "Not that I mind."

“That’s –“

Before Komaeda could speak, Hinata added in: “Point being, I couldn’t 'confirm' anything to you. I have never actually seen any of those places, as they were, and my concept of, well, anything even remotely _beautiful_ is very different from yours… But…”

Komaeda frowned.

“Hinata, there’s no need to take any of this that seriously! I didn’t mean to…” Komaeda stalled in his words, blinking rapidly as he tried to find an excuse, an explanation, for what it was he did think he had meant when he had first brought this up. Hinata simply nodded.

“You can say that but it doesn’t change anything, you know? I am still thinking about it and I can still say that if given the change, I would _want_ for you to be able to see it all for yourself.”

Komaeda laughed at him then.

“That’s yet another thing that doesn’t mean much at all to me now, Hinata.”

Hinata looked up at Komaeda who appeared to be done with avoiding his gaze. He then shrugged.

“I know, but I can still work towards making it happen. I am going anyway, one of these days and hopefully soon if you wish; so, why couldn’t you come with me?”

 


End file.
